Class Act
Class Act is the first Christmas episode of the Happy Tree Friends internet series, the tenth episode of the second season, and the thirty-seventh overall. To date, it is the only episode to feature all of the original main characters (though half of them only have background cameos). This is by far one of the most popular episodes of Happy Tree Friends. HTF Episode Description This is the first Holiday episode we made and it features the entire cast. You have to admire Lumpy's attitude that the show must go on, but sometimes there is even too much disaster for even the Happy Tree Friends gang to handle. In true holiday spirit, they pull together for a tear-jerk ending. Peace to everyone. Plot The episode begins on a clear, starlit night at the Happy Tree Friends' school in the middle of the forest. Generic Tree Friends fill the auditorium, where onstage, Nutty lies in a bed in front of a set resembling a bedroom. Offstage, Lumpy, the director of the play motions for Toothy to walk onstage. Holding a candle, Toothy moves to the center of the stage when a spotlight shines several feet to his right. Lumpy then tells The Mole, who is operating the spotlight, to move the light onto Toothy. Lumpy then motions up to Lifty and Shifty, who stand above the stage. The two begin shaking an upside-down and obviously upset Flaky, her dandruff acting as snow for the background. With everything in place, Lumpy tells Toothy to start the show. Toothy begins singing "O Tannenbaum" while Giggles, Sniffles, and Cuddles come onstage dressed in cardboard cut-outs of a present, a candy cane, and a Christmas tree respectively and begin dancing. From Nutty's point of view, however, he can only see the top part of Sniffles' candy cane costume; on top of that, the spotlight makes the costume look like a real candy cane. Toothy stops singing upon hearing a crunching noise and a scream. Everyone looks over to see Sniffles with a big bite mark on his costume and torso. Everyone looks over to see Nutty lying in bed with blood on his face, giggling happily, unaware that he just consumed cardboard and flesh rather than a candy cane. A scared Toothy looks over to Lumpy, who tells him to keep singing, despite Sniffles' screams of pain. Toothy begins singing again, sounding a little uneasy. While Toothy continues singing, Sniffles runs offstage and gets the curved part of his candy cane costume caught on a rope, causing a sandbag to drop and knock Giggles' costume off her body, causing the music to stop. Unfortunately, this also cuts her face off, which lands at Toothy's feet. Horrified, he looks back at Lumpy for guidance. Once more, Lumpy tells Toothy to keep singing, not minding about the brutal injuries. By now, Toothy can barely sing as he cries in fear. Giggles runs around the stage in a panic, until she slips on her own face. Giggles' face flies up and hits the Mole in his face, causing him to swing the spotlight over to Lifty and Shifty. They give a cry of shock and throw their hands up to shield their eyes, dropping Flaky in the process. She falls down the chimney in the set, her quills seen poking through as she makes her way down. As she emerges out of the fireplace, her skin and quills have been completely ripped off, exposing all of her muscles. Toothy and Cuddles become horrified and look over to Lumpy yet again. Lumpy, now realizing the problem, is seen climbing out a window. Upon Lumpy escaping, Cuddles and Toothy run away offstage in fear, but not before Toothy tosses his candle into the air. The candle lands right by the curtains, setting them ablaze. Petunia screams in fear while everyone starts panicking and running from their seats. Cuddles is the first to reach the door, but in all the confusion, he forgets to remove his costume. He gets stuck in the doorway while numerous Generic Tree Friends run against him, trying to get out. Eventually, Cuddles is forced out of the face-hole of his costume, squeezing his head into a red, cylinder-shaped glob of flesh resembling a slinky as it bounces down the stairs. Finally, his costume breaks, and the audience comes flooding out of the burning school. Disco Bear is standing next to Lumpy, the entire right side of his face and afro burnt. Lumpy starts clearing his throat and sighs (after one of the Generics run away with fire all around him/her) before looking around at the damage. The Mole's cane has impaled him through his eye, Pop is burned and bruised, Cub is screaming in pain as a Christmas star is lodged in his head and most of his left fingers have been cut off, and Cuddles weakly moves his hand. Blood and organs are everywhere. Nutty appears to have been lightly burned, crying as well, and has some blood on his fur (though it is not clear if it is his or someone else's). Flaky is kneeling on all fours, freezing without any skin. In the background, Mime tries to comfort a burned Generic Tree Friend while a flipped-out Flippy is stabbing another Generic Tree Friend. Giggles laments the loss of her face, Sniffles looks nervously at the gaping hole in his torso, and Handy stares horrified as he is now missing both of his feet in addition to his hands. Cro-Marmot stands off in the distance (strangely and seemingly undamaged), and Shifty is dragging a wailing Lifty (who is missing the bottom half of his body) away. Everywhere, dead and dying Generic Tree Friends litter the ground. Toothy starts facing the snow, upset and thinking about what he had triggered after he accidentally threw the candle moments ago, but as a shooting star flies by in the background, he straightens up, determined and steadfast. Once more he begins singing, and everyone looks up. Behind Toothy, Splendid finally lands in the middle of it all, having apparently been alerted by the Tree Friends' screams, yelling, shrieks, and crying. The cries, shrieking, and whimpers stop and everyone smiles, moved by Toothy's singing (except for Fliqpy, who continues stabbing his victim). Even Lumpy is moved to tears by the sound of Toothy's voice. Suddenly, everyone starts joining hands, hooks, and bones around the burning school, joining Toothy in his song. Giggles joins hands with Russell, as well as Disco Bear with Flaky, and Petunia with Mime. Before long, everyone who escaped from the burning school have stopped their cries of pain and start singing along with Toothy while holding hands around the now burning school. As the camera pans up into the sky, we see a giant twinkling star shimmering with all its glory. When suddenly, the school explodes and burning bodies are sent flying everywhere. Then the iris closes in on the twinkling star. Moral "It is better to give than to receive!" Blurb The Blurb video of Class Act contains these annotations (note that the blurb uses the remastered Class Act video): *'BlurB!' *'It is proper etiquette to arrive at plays on time' *'"Real" directors don't wear shirts!' *'Safety tip: Don't eat yellow dandruff!' *'The set is an actual replica of writer Warren Graff's house' *'He's still saving up to buy the other three walls and a roof!' *'Candy canes were invented by two pirates on their day off' *'They died a few hours later in a laundry related accident' *'Countdown to carnage!' **'3' **'2' **'1' **'Pizza face!' *'Face-a-phobia is the irrational fear of severed faces' *'It affects thousands of beavers and turtles every year' *'Someone in the world goes blind every 5 seconds' *'Q: Name another seasonal chimney user?' *'A: Mark Twain' *'Fire is HOT!' *'We got nothing...' *'This door was specifically made to keep costumes within school premises' **'3' **'2' **'1' **'Slinky face!!!' *'Lumpy had just enough time to buy a new hat!' *'The skin is the largest organ in the body' *'Safety tip: look up! Shooting star related accidents are real!' *'Better late than never!' *'Snow is COLD!' *'Yup, still nothing...' *'Holding hands with friends is fun!' *'Holding hands with hobos... not so much' *'Safety tip: schools are not the ideal place to store explosives' *'Pizza Face and Slinky Face later teamed up and now run a detective agency that go around the country solving crime' *'They also have a successful off-broadway production and a comic book featured at the back of the "Weekly Shopper's Paradise.' *'All proceeds from their businesses benefit the "Animals without Faces" foundation' Blurb Gallery Deaths #Numerous Generic Tree Friends possibly burn and die in the fire. #Some Generic Tree Friends die when everyone is trying to get out of the burning school. One example is that one has a big hole in his/her head and his/her brain is exposed. #Fliqpy stabs a Generic Tree Friend several times to death. #When the school explodes, it kills everyone. (Debatable, as The Reindeer and The Cursed Idol may have survived. The deaths of Evil Flippy, Cro-Marmot, and Splendid were confirmed by Warren Graff.) Injuries Before the fire: #Sniffles has part of his torso bitten and torn by Nutty after the squirrel thinks he is a real candy cane. #Giggles' face is cut off when her costume is pulled down by a falling bag. The staff likes to call it "Pizza-Face." (This is mentioned in the Blurb and DVD Commentary.) #Flaky's quills are ripped off when she falls through a prop chimney. After the fire: #Cuddles gets his face forced out of his costume. The staff members call it "Slinky Face" or "Face Slinky." (This is mentioned in the Blurb and DVD Commentary.) #The right side of Disco Bear's face and afro is slightly burned. #Lumpy inhales some smoke from the fire. #The Mole somehow has his cane impaled through his left eye and out of the back of his head. #Pop is burned and bruised. #Cub has a Christmas star lodged in his head and is missing the fingers (excluding his thumb) on his left hand. #Nutty appears to have been lightly burned and has some blood on his fur. #Mime is seen with light burns over his body. #Lifty is missing the bottom half of his body. #Shifty is slightly burned. #Handy somehow loses both of his feet while trying to get out of the burning school. #Petunia loses a part of her hand, as her exposed bone is seen. #It is assumed that an unknown amount of Generic Tree Friends were trampled, burned, and/or injured in unknown ways in the middle of the panic while trying to get out of the burning school. Controversy over who started it all Since the episode aired, there were masses of controversy over whether or not Toothy was to blame for the deaths in this episode. There are a few key points to consider: Though Toothy dropped the candle and caused the fire, he did it out of panic due to the chaos that had occurred up to that point. Fans who identified with said reaction have mostly blamed the whole affair on Nutty since he took a bite out of Sniffles, which led to the sandbag slicing Giggles' face off and so on. However, Lumpy should not be ignored as he was the one who encouraged Toothy to continue with the play, even though Sniffles was clearly in pain, and he attempted to run away from the building when the situation finally degraded, causing Toothy to panic and throw the candle. Also, in regards to the ending, while some claim that Toothy gave everyone an excuse to stand near the school before it exploded, others have argued that it was the characters' decisions to join in the singing and stand in a circle around the building. While inevitable in the dangerous world of the Happy Tree Friends, in real life, the candle would not have caused the explosion on its own, though there may have been highly flammable/explosive items inside the building at the time. As a conclusion, Toothy is definitely to blame for the fire, almost certain to blame for the school explosion, but getting the other characters killed in the explosion comes down to a matter of opinion: do you blame him for telling his friends to walk into a hazard, or do you blame the others for not thinking things through--there are two ways this massacre could have been avoided right at the end. Although an official source declared it was originally Nutty who was to blame for the deaths and injuries, Kenn Navarro made a tweet on September 18th, 2015 claiming that it was written as a group effort between Giggles, Toothy, Lumpy, Nutty, Sniffles, Flaky, The Mole, Lifty, and Shifty, so that leaves everybody responsible. The deaths of Flippy, Splendid, and Cro-Marmot were previously put in the debate. Years later, Warren Graff confirmed everyone died, according to a reply on a forum (which is unavailable now). Crew Members *Toothy - Main Role (singer) *Cuddles - Christmas Tree *Giggles - Present *Sniffles - Candy Cane *Lifty, Shifty, and Flaky - Background Snow (background effects) *Nutty - Unknown Sleeping Role *Lumpy - Director *The Mole - Lighting Goofs #Throughout the episode, there are three steps in front of the school. At the end of the episode, however, there are two steps. #The positions of the ornaments on Cuddles' costume change several times. #The curve on Sniffles' costume changes places after he is bitten by Nutty. #The Mole's mole changes places several times, sometimes during continuous shots. #The cup surrounding the candle that Toothy holds disappears briefly after Flaky falls through the chimney. #When Giggles' face is sliced off, it is a clear cut and her eye, nose, or mouth holes are not visible. #When Nutty bites Sniffles, his arm is shown to be eaten. Later, when everyone is outside, Sniffles still has both of his arms. #Usually, blood tastes salty instead of sweet. It is possible that Nutty either didn't notice as he was too busy enjoying the taste, or he likes salty foods as well. (Considering the substance on Nutty's face is brown and not red, its possible that Sniffles' costume actually had real candy or chocolate inside) #Flaky's dandruff falls from above the window, but she falls down in the fireplace which is to the side of the window. #Toothy has normal buckteeth through most of the episode. #Even though Lumpy's hat falls off when he runs out the window, he has it again when he is outside. (This is mentioned in the Blurb.) #If one slows down the frame rate, they will see that when the shot of Toothy singing outside the school grounds changes to the shot of Flaky, Nutty, Mime, Flippy, and Splendid, Splendid and Flaky do not appear at first and Toothy can be seen next to Nutty, without a head. #Even though most characters suffer brutal injuries, they appear to be fine when they stand around the school (e.g. Handy has his feet back). Shifty also retains his burned tail. #In the shadows near the end, Handy has hands. #Lifty and Shifty do not have their Pac-Man-shaped pupils, even though they do not steal anything in this episode. #When Toothy drops the candle and starts the fire, Flaky and Nutty disappear beneath the chimney. #Flaky does not have her normal pupils while she is being shaken upside down. Neither does Toothy while he is frightened and crying. #When Giggles' face gets sliced off, her eyelashes disappear. #Lifty and Shifty start shaking Flaky for the snow effect, but after the camera moves to Toothy, the "snow" stops. #Before Toothy starts singing at the end of the episode, there are three burned Generic Tree Friends in the shot with Giggles, Sniffles and Handy; however, the next time we see the same characters, an additional Generic Tree Friend can suddenly be seen next to Lifty and Shifty. #When Toothy begins singing near the end of the episode, if one looks closely, the pupils on Giggles' sliced face can be seen moving. Since her face was sliced off, it should have been impossible for her to do so. #When Generic Tree Friends escape from the burning school, two of them are missing when they push out Cuddles' costume, only to later run next to Pop and Cub. #When Pop and Cub escape from the burning school, Cub is missing his buckteeth. #When Sniffles gets bitten and Giggles loses her face, they both spread blood all over the stage, but when the curtains get set on fire, the blood on the stage is gone. #When Toothy starts to sing and the screen goes to Sniffles and Giggles, a piece of intestine, a kidney, and a third dead Generic Tree Friend are on the ground, despite not being there before. Quick Shot Moment When Lifty and Shifty drop Flaky in order to shield their eyes from the Mole's spotlight, there is a brief shot of Petunia screaming once the stage gets caught on fire. This Quick Shot Moment looks exactly like the episode's YouTube thumbnail. Note: This was fixed in the Blurb version and in the Classics Remastered version. . Trivia *This episode is the most popular episode of Happy Tree Friends after the episode Eyes Cold Lemonade. *This is the only episode that features all of the original twenty main characters. **However, this is only if one counts Flippy and Fliqpy as the same character. If not, Flippy is the only original main character who didn't appear. *According to the staff, they said that they intended to make this episode as special as possible. *The crew has said on the commentary for this episode that they gave Cuddles and Giggles' injuries nicknames. They refer to Giggles' injury as "Pizza Face", while they refer to Cuddles' injury as "Slinky Face." *This is the first episode to have a winter version of the opening. The next Christmas opening would occur in We're Scrooged! Coincidentally, Lumpy stars in both episodes. *Russell is the only character whose entire body and face isn't shown. One can only be sure that he was there by seeing his hook holding Giggles' hand near the end of the episode. * While Flaky is falling, The Cursed Idol can be seen sitting on a shelf in the background, on just one frame. *Besides Nutty, the characters who act and/or direct the school play are the five most frequent HTF characters: Cuddles, Giggles, Toothy, Lumpy and Sniffles (though Petunia is actually the 5th most frequent, with Sniffles being the 6th most frequent). Flaky, The Mole, Lifty, and Shifty are also crew members of the play, as they help with the preparations during the play. *This is the first time both Nutty and Sniffles' deaths are caused by other characters. *This is considered the darkest episode of the internet series due to the high amount of deaths. The darkest TV episode is Who's to Flame?. *Flaky would later suffer a similar injury in Let It Slide, where she would drown after her injury. *The way Cuddles bounces down the school steps after turning into a bloody cylinder is similar to a slinky. *This is the only time Flippy and Splendid are seen onscreen together at the same time. Splendid flies in at the end while Flippy stabs a Tree Friend. **It is also the only time that they are in an episode together to date. *Cuddles would later die a similar death in Ipso Fatso, though in this episode his face remains on top of the cylinder. *Cub's injury is similar to Toothy's death in Star Kringle. *One of Cub's injuries involved his fingers getting sliced off. Cub suffered a similar injury in Chip Off the Ol' Block. *Cuddles, Giggles, Sniffles, Toothy, Lumpy, Nutty, The Mole, Lifty, Shifty, and Flaky (the tree friends working the play) are the only main characters in this episode to not make background cameos. The other half of the main characters do, however, but not until the fire begins. Petunia is seen screaming during the fire; Disco Bear, Pop, Cub, and Handy (along with some other characters from earlier) are seen injured after the fire; Flippy is seen stabbing a Generic Tree Friend to death while Cro-Marmot is seen standing in the distance; Mime tries to cheer up a Generic Tree Friend with a balloon without success; Splendid is seen flying in when Toothy starts singing; and Russell is seen joining hands with Giggles at the end, seconds before the school explodes. *Some characters are noticeable in the shadows just by shape when they start singing (ex: Lumpy, Handy, Russell, Shifty, Mime, etc). *When Toothy begins singing outside the school, Giggles' eyes on her severed face moves to look at Toothy. *Cuddles weakly raises his hand in the shot featuring The Mole, Pop, and Cub after the fire, signifying that he survived having his face sliced off. *This is the first episode where all of the four main bear characters (Pop, Cub, Disco Bear, and Flippy) appear. The second episode this happens in is A Vicious Cycle. *Cuddles and Giggles both suffer an injury in this episode involving the face hole in their costume. *The scene where everybody joins hands and sings around the burning school is likely a reference to How the Grinch Stole Christmas!. *If one notices when the school explodes, Cuddles' Christmas tree outfit can be seen flung into the air. *This is the only episode where Splendid has an appearance role. *This is Splendid's first and only death in the internet series. He also dies in the TV episode Gems the Breaks. *This is one of the few episodes where Lifty and Shifty do not steal anything. *Lifty's injury is similar to Petunia's injury in Snow What? That's What!. *This was the last episode where Mark Giambruno provided the voices for Lifty and Shifty. *This is the only episode where Splendid does not save or kill anybody. *During December 2009, a "Blurb" version of this episode was released, featuring remastered animation and pop-up facts, much like the Popcorn version of Spin Fun Knowin' Ya. **Since then, Mondo Media occasionally creates Blurbs for internet episodes (And one TV episode). *This is one of the few episodes where Lifty and Shifty show concern for each other; Shifty seems to be trying to help or get help for Lifty when part of the latter's body is cut off. *Nutty is indirectly responsible for every death in this episode (except, perhaps, for those caused by the class explosion). This would later be repeated in Party Animal. *When Handy is shown outside, his feet are ironically enough cut off. The same thing will later occur to him again in By The Seat Of Your Pants. *This episode has the highest amount of confirmed deaths. *This is considered by many fans to be the best episode of Happy Tree Friends. *This is one of the many episodes where a character makes "Puppy Eyes". The other instances are Lumpy and Russell in Get Whale Soon, Toothy in Better Off Bread, Nutty in Icy You, Petunia, Giggles, and Lumpy in Stealing the Spotlight, Flaky in Ski Ya, Wouldn't Wanna Be Ya!, Lumpy in In a Jam, Lifty in Easy For You to Sleigh, Lumpy in Letter Late than Never, Fliqpy in Hear Today, Gone Tomorrow, Sniffles in Wrath of Con, and Lumpy in All In Vein and in Aw, Shucks!. *This is one of the many episodes to be remastered for the Blurb version. *This is the only time Splendid physically appears and has an appearance role instead of a starring role. Similarly, this is the only time that Splendid appears but the episode doesn't focus mostly around him (excluding times he appears as merchandise). *This is one of the only two times when Lifty and Shifty interact with Flaky, the other being Happy Trails Pt. 2: Jumping the Shark. *Almost every character in this episode suffers at least one injury. The only characters who were not injured at all were Splendid and Cro-Marmot. *When everyone is running from the fire inside the school, Pop can be seen tripping over one of Cuddles' severed ears while holding Cub, and when he falls over, he accidentally drops Cub on the star, which explains how it got on Cub in the first place. *On the Third Strike DVD, a behind the scenes feature called "Follow the Yellow Rabbit" showed that the school was redesigned multiple times. And for comedic humor, the notes claim that the bell has an engraving that reads "Class of '76 rocks!" 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